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Baby Hiram Lawrence was one of seven victims wounded a week ago when gunmen opened fire on a group of people watching the filming of a rap video in West Oakland.

Family members were gathering at the hospital Thursday afternoon to say their final goodbyes to the baby.  The family has cleared the hospital to comment on the case.  A statement is expected soon.

Read more at kron4.com.

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Surveillance footage released by police on Wednesday captured the ambush and near fatal shooting of Tyquan Sewall, 18, outside a Brooklyn McDonald’s.

The video clearly shows the intricate scheme, where a collection of young assailants pass along a .32-caliber Smith & Wesson before one of them approaches Sewall, aims the pistol at his head and fires.

A detailed rundown of the footage shows:

• 0:12– A man wearing a black shirt and carrying a black bag hands the bag to another man in a white T-shirt.

• 0:15– The man in the white T-shirt pulls out the revolver as his pal walks inside the restaurant.

• 0:20– A man in a red track jacket is seen walking towards McDonald’s.

• 0:24– The man in red enters the McDonald’s and is passed the revolver.

• 00:25– Sewal enters the frame, walking toward McDonald’s wearing black shorts and a white shirt.

• 0:30– Sewal reaches the entrance as the man in red steps out of the door, aims the pistol at Sewall’s head and fires.

“What you see here is a pretty elaborate choreography of handing off the gun from the first player, to the second player and to the gunman – all along luring the victim to the ambush,” said Paul Browne, top spokesman for the NYPD

Read more at the New York Daily News.

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Damark King, 19, is charged with assault, weapons possession, criminal use of a firearm and reckless endangerment.

King hit 2-year-old Samyah Bailey with a stray bullet outside her Staten Island home on Wednesday.

With blood dripping down into the little girl’s eyes, Williams whisked Samyah into a car and rushed her to the hospital. They were met by an ambulance along the way, and got a police escort.

Read more at the New York Daily News.

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Jimmy Cannon was taken to Stroger Hospital and is listed in critical condition. He was shot 8 times in the shoulders, hand, and legs.

The family said they were at a cousin’s birthday party when the shooting occurred. Cannon was taken to Stroger Hospital in serious-to-critical condition but is expected to recover.

View more videos at: http://nbcchicago.com.

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Read More At GlobalGrind.com

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Teen Playing With Gun Fatally Shoots Himself

Chastain Montgomery Sr. was indicted by a grand jury on two counts of killing a government employee in the Oct. 18 shooting inside the post office in the small West Tennessee town of Henning.

The indictment says the 47-year-old Montgomery killed Judy Spray and Paula Robinson during a robbery of the post office that he committed with his son, Chastain Montgomery Jr.

Edward Stanton, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, said the father and son aided and abetted each other in the crime, but declined to elaborate on any other details. He said the investigation is ongoing.

The 18-year-old Montgomery Jr. was killed in a shootout with police on Feb. 14 after a police chase, and his father is jailed on charges related to the shoutout. Afterwards, federal authorities began investigating whether a gun used by the teenager was also linked to the post office shootings.

The sheriff’s office in Tipton County, just north of Memphis, said Montgomery got out of a stolen pickup armed with two handguns and fired at officers several times before a deputy shot him dead.

Chastain Montgomery Sr. was arrested when he went to the scene and tried to get in the stolen pickup truck his son had been driving. He ran through crime scene tape, ignoring the shouted warnings of officers and headed straight for the truck, which was still running.

Montgomery Sr., a state prison guard, was carrying dye-stained cash, and his home in the Nashville suburb of La Vergne was searched that evening for guns, money from recent bank robberies, stolen property and dark clothing, according to warrants in the case.

The father was jailed on charges of evidence tampering, being an accessory, theft between $1,000 and $10,000 and resisting arrest. In the newly announced indictment, he also faces federal charges of robbery with a dangerous weapon, using a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, and two counts of unlawfully causing the death of a person.

The Henning post office shootings shook the town of 1,200 people about 45 miles northeast of Memphis, and residents have been praying for an arrest. Authorities have been quiet throughout the investigation, refusing to disclose details of the shootings, a possible motive, or even how many people they thought were involved.

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service had offered a reward of $50,000 for information that led to a conviction.

Stanton said the victims’ families and the town’s residents have suffered. “Hopefully this does begin that process of restoring and healing for that community and for those families,” he said.

Montgomery Sr. is in the process of being transferred into federal custody and no hearing has been set in federal court.

Mike Dunavant, District Attorney for the area that includes Tipton County, said the state was deferring to federal authorities in its prosecution of Montgomery Sr. for the state charges. But he didn’t rule out additional state charges being filed against him.

John Mehr, a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agent in West Tennessee, called the announcement of the indictment a glorious day for the victims’ families, but the investigation was not over.

“Although this is an occasion that they’ve been looking for, there’s lots ahead of them,” Mehr said. “They suffered tremendously in the last few months.”

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A woman fatally shot three people and herself at a Seattle home Thursday, injuring another woman who fled into the front yard and told officers: “My mom has gone crazy,” police said.

The woman who opened fire was a grandmother who first killed her son-in-law, then two granddaughters and then wounded her daughter as the younger woman fled, a 17-year-old relative told The Seattle Times.

“Grandma just shot them for no reason,” Tony Sun told the newspaper. Sun said he arrived home shortly after the shootings and was taken onto a police bus with his surviving family members, who told him what had happened.

Neither police nor the King County medical examiner’s office have officially identified the victims. Police spokesman Sean Whitcomb says officers have not determined a motive.

Officers responded to a report of gunshots at about 1:30 p.m. and could still hear shots being fired from the house when they arrived, Whitcomb said. A man in his 50s ran into the house. Two more shots were fired and he ran back out, telling officers his wife had shot herself.

When police were able to go inside, they found the four dead, including a woman in her 50s they believe was the shooter, Whitcomb said.

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He said police don’t believe anyone else was involved.

Assistant Police Chief Jim Pugel said the wounded woman — who is expected to survive — was able to speak to officers when they arrived.

“All she said was, ‘My mom has gone crazy,’ ” Pugel said.

In addition to the older woman, the dead included two young women in their teens and a man in his 30s, police said.

Sun identified the older woman as Chhouy Harm.

He told The Times the wounded woman was Thyda Harm and added that the dead included her husband, Chean Harm Phan, and two of their daughters, Jennifer Harm, 17, and Melina Harm, 14.

The wounded woman was in serious but stable condition at Harborview Medical Center, hospital spokeswoman Susan Gregg-Hanson said Thursday afternoon.

Whitcomb said police would not release the names or ages of the deceased Thursday, adding that the information would come from the medical examiner. A medical examiner’s investigator said no formal identifications were expected before Friday afternoon.

The Times reported that Sun and other relatives confirmed the names.

According to Tony Sun’s account, his aunt, Lisa Sun, 28, was upstairs when Chhouy Harm told her to go into her room and shut the door. She did, but waited at the door. Then she heard gunshots and ran downstairs and out of the house. She was followed by Thyda Harm’s 16-year-old son, who scooped up his 6-year-old sister and fled, Sun said.

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Police said two handguns were recovered from the house in a lower middle-class neighborhood a block north of southwest Seattle’s city limits.

Neighbor Bobby Miller told KOMO that police showed up almost immediately after the shots were fired.

“I just heard gunshots. I come out and cops were all over,” Miller said. “Just ‘bam, bam’ and that was it. Then screaming over here.”

Travis Rowland, 53, said he was about a block away waiting to get his truck repaired at an auto shop when he saw a woman run from the house hollering.

As police arrived, Rowland said, a man “busted away from the police officers and ran into the house.” Rowland said the man was inside for about 10 to 15 seconds before “there were a couple more shots, pow, pow, pow. At first I didn’t know who was shooting. He came back outside.”

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A man drove a pickup truck loaded with ammunition into a suburban Dallas police station’s parking lot on Tuesday, set the truck on fire and exchanged gunfire with police, officials said. The gunman was the only casualty and died at the scene.

McKinney Deputy Police Chief Scott Brewer said the man was shouting as the truck became engulfed in flames and the ammunition inside began exploding. The still-unidentified gunman then began shooting toward the police station and there was a “brief exchange of gunfire,” Brewer said.

It wasn’t immediately clear how the gunman died.

Brewer said police had no idea why the attack occurred or whether the man planned the attack alone.

“We believe there is just one shooter at this point in time,” Brewer told reporters at McKinney City Hall. The police station sits amid a large cornfield near Collin College.

One building on campus was hit by bullets, but there were no injuries, said campus spokeswoman Lisa Vasquez. The college locked its campus down to students and staff for two hours after the shooting, and has blocked access to the public, Vasquez said. Patrol cars blocked street entrances to the police department building in McKinney, a suburb of about 127,000 people 30 miles north of Dallas.

Matt Payne told television station WFAA that he was driving to work with his wife and 10-year-old son when they saw a white truck on fire. He heard gunshots and saw a man standing in a field with what appeared to be a bulletproof vest and “some sort of semiautomatic rifle,” he said. A campus police officer appeared and there was more gunfire.

“I knew that I didn’t need to be there. We got out of there as quick as we could,” he told the station.

Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said Texas Rangers, highway patrol and DPS aircraft were on the scene or headed to the area. Vinger could provide no further details.

The Collin County Community College District sent an e-mail alert to college staff and students shortly after 9:30 a.m. Tuesday warning that shots had been fired and that the central campus in McKinney was closed.

The e-mail said: “Shots fired. Campus on lockdown. Cops on the scene. Details to follow.”

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OAKLAND, Calif. – A California man known for his anger over left-leaning politics said after a freeway shootout with CHP officers that he had been planning an attack on the ACLU and another nonprofit group, police said Tuesday.

Byron Williams, 45, a parolee with two previous bank robbery convictions, wanted to “start a revolution” by killing people at the American Civil Liberties Union and Tides Foundation, both in San Francisco, Oakland police Sgt. Michael Weisenberg said in court documents. The San Francisco Chronicle is referring to Williams as a Tea Party sympathizer.

The weekend shootout occurred during a 24-hour span in Oakland when a sniper shot at police officers from a high-rise building, and a Virginia man who had a job interview in the San Francisco Bay area was fatally shot in downtown Oakland by robbers who got away with just $17.

The spate of violence came just a week after budget problems led Oakland to lay off 80 police officers.

The Oakland Police Department is leading the investigation into the shootout, but no city officers were involved in the incident that occurred on Interstate 580.

The FBI joined the case after a binder entitled “California” was discovered in the truck driven by Williams and removed by a bomb squad robot, CHP spokesman Sam Morgan said.

Officer Jeff Thomason, an Oakland police spokesman, said the two nonprofit groups were targeted because of their political ideologies. The ACLU is a civil rights group, while the Tides Foundation says on its website that it works to advance progressive social change.

“It’s an unbelievable incident,” Thomason said, adding that authorities believe Williams was acting alone. “We’re very fortunate in the Bay Area that the CHP was able to stop him.”

Sitting in a wheelchair, Williams was arraigned Tuesday in Alameda County Superior Court after being released from a hospital where he was treated for gunshot wounds to his arms and legs. He looked down and did not enter a plea as a judge read the charges — four counts of attempted murder on peace officers, plus weapons and body armor enhancements.

The judge also noted that Williams’ two previous convictions for bank robbery could make him eligible for life in prison under California’s Three Strikes Law if he is convicted in the CHP shootout.

No CHP officers were seriously injured in the incident.

Williams was wearing a bulletproof vest and armed with three guns, including a rifle, as he traveled to San Francisco late Saturday night in his mother’s Toyota Tundra, police said. He is accused of opening fire on California Highway Patrol officers who approached his truck after pulling him over for speeding and weaving in traffic.

Williams surrendered and was arrested after a 12-minute gunbattle with 12 officers, most of whom responded as Williams reloaded several times, police said. Morgan said about 150 rounds were fired during shootout.

Williams had “made a decision that he would not be arrested and that he was willing to shoot and kill the officers,” according to the probable cause statement filed in court.

During a police interview at the hospital, Williams said he had planned to camp out in San Francisco on Sunday night then begin his attack when the ACLU and Tides Foundation opened Monday, Thomason said.

Christine Coleman, spokeswoman for the foundation, said the organization had taken additional security measure to protect its staff.

“We had never heard of this man before,” Coleman said. “We cannot speculate about the incident while the investigation is going on.”

Phone calls to the ACLU of Northern California were not immediately returned.

Williams also told investigators he was upset because he had not been able to find a job and because of the poor economy, Thomason said.

Williams’ mother, Janice Williams, told the San Francisco Chronicle her son had been angry with “the way Congress was railroading through all these left-wing agenda items.”

A phone message left for Janice Williams by The Associated Press was not immediately returned.

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ALBANY, N.Y. – Police have released video showing an upstate New York police officer fatally shooting a 37-year-old man who had rammed his car into another officer last winter.

The video of the chaotic encounter with parolee Howard Tucker was combined from two sources: a newly installed police car dashboard camera and a surveillance camera trained on a street where Tucker was pulled over by two Albany police officers on Feb. 16.

The dashboard footage shows the officers on either side of Tucker’s car just before he speeds away. The second camera captures Tucker’s car skidding on a snow-covered street as the officers chase it on foot.

Tucker’s car sideswipes a utility pole, then runs into one of the officers as his partner opens fire on Tucker.

A grand jury last month cleared the officers of any wrongdoing in the shooting.

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From ChicagoBreakingNews.com:

At least 15 people were wounded in shootings on the South and West Sides Tuesday night and early this morning, according to police.

The attacks included the shooting of seven people in the East Garfield Park neighborhood, the shooting of two people in the Little Village neighborhood and the shooting of a carjacking victim on the South Side.

At least five people were wounded in other shootings, according to police.

Click here for more.

Sixteen people were shot, two of them fatally, in three separate incidents in a two-mile radius in east Baltimore Sunday night, police said.

Detectives were searching Monday morning for a gunman who opened fire at a backyard cookout, wounding 12 people, police department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

None of the dozen victims suffered life-threatening injuries. The victims were hit in the legs, arms, shoulders and backs, and the wounded included a 2-year-old girl and a pregnant 23-year-old woman, police said.

Detectives were interviewing witnesses and working to develop a description of the gunman, who walked into the small backyard of a rowhouse on Ashland Avenue and opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon around 9 p.m., according to police.

Two 19-year-old men were shot and killed in a separate incident less than a mile away, Guglielmi said. The victims were identified as Gary Martin and Darien Jones. Police had no immediate suspects.

A third shooting incident left two men with non-life-threatening injuries, Guglielmi said.

Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III was on the scene of both the cookout shooting and the double homicide, Guglielmi said. The incidents highlight the need to rid Baltimore’s streets of illegal guns, the spokesman said.

“We can only do so much without help from the community and others,” Guglielmi said. “We can put a police car in every driveway, but unless people step up, we can only get so far.”

A drive-by shooting at a community rally on the Texas Southern University campus Wednesday night left six people wounded, a school spokeswoman said. Police believe the incident was gang-related.

One male student was among the six people who were shot and treated for serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, TSU spokeswoman Eva Pickens said.

Witnesses told police that one car drove by and opened fire on the parking lot where a popular Houston rapper was promoting community service and voter registration, Pickens said.

Peter Role, a local music promoter, told the Houston Chronicle he heard what sounded “like the Fourth of July.”

“We heard some gunshots and everybody was hitting the ground,” Role said.

Campus police believe the incident resulted from a rivalry between two gangs, one from Missouri City, a suburb southwest of Houston, and the other from Fresno, a small town outside Missouri City, she said.

Among the rally participants was Houston City Councilman Peter Brown, who is running for mayor in November’s election.

Lucinda Guinn, who manages Brown’s mayoral campaign, said the rally — billed as a “family block party” — included a concert by rapper Trae the Truth and featured participants such as Brown and U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. Guinn said she had no details on the shootings, but was dismayed that “an effort for bringing a very positive message to the community” would end in violence.

Nancy Byron, Trae’s publicist, told the Chronicle that the rapper already had left the event at 8:30 p.m. or 8:45 p.m. and did not see the shooting.

“We’re very depressed about it and we feel like it<s a black eye on an otherwise very community-driven event,” Byron said.

An e-mail sent to Lee wasn’t immediately returned. Her telephone mailbox was full and wouldn’t take messages.

Texas Southern is a historically black university in Houston with an enrollment approaching 10,000 students.

From the Amsterdam News

Being hailed as a hero, Jeselle Page selflessly put her own life before her nephew’s as shots rang out near a playground. As the family and community grieve, she is being remembered as a woman who made the ultimate sacrifice for a child she cared for so much.

A stray bullet shot Page on Sunday afternoon when two men were involved in a gun battle on Morris Street in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. Reports indicate that Page was watching her 8-year-old nephew, R.J. Gomez, while he was in a playground. Page was babysitting for a family member.

As bullets flew, Page, shot in the chest, nonetheless picked up the boy, shielding him and taking him to safety. Terrence Villanueva was arrested and charged with killing Page. His rap sheet spans back to 2002 with crimes that include rape, assault, and drug and weapons possession. He served a yearlong prison sentence in 2006.

Page had just moved into the neighborhood from Harlem. She recently won a lottery for an affordable apartment living alone. She had been living in Bushwick for only six months.

Speaking to the AmNews on behalf of the family, Page’s brother Kevin Fountain said that his sister was the youngest of a family of six sisters and one brother. Affectionately known as “Jazzy,” Page had no children but enjoyed caring for them whenever someone needed the help. “My sisters are taking it kind of hard and my nephew is traumatized,” he said. “Everybody is taking this on different levels.”

Click here to read more.

From The New York Times

A chaotic predawn shootout outside a Jersey City apartment building between a shotgun-wielding suspect and the police left five officers wounded — two critically, including one shot in the face — and two suspects dead, according to the Jersey City mayor, Jerramiah Healy, who spoke at a news conference in Jersey City.

Five police officers were taken to New Jersey Medical Center with gunshot wounds in what Mayor Healy called a “terrible gunfight,” and several others sustained injuries relating to the fight.

The officer who had been shot in the face had no signs of life when he was brought in, officials said, but was revived, said doctors at the Jersey City Medical Center. He remained in extremely critical condition.

The other police officer in critical condition was hit in the neck and was in surgery.

Of the other officers injured, one was hit in the vest, another in the arm, and another was grazed in the leg by a bullet and already released.

Gunfire erupted just after 5 a.m. outside an apartment on 24 Reed Street near Bergen Avenue, where the two suspects had already been under investigation by the police. According to another Jersey City law official who requested anonymity, the two people dead are suspected of conducting a robbery in Jersey City with shotguns in June.

Click here to read more.

From MSNBC

Adam Williams’ improbable journey to Elkhart began in a hail of bullets on a dark road in the Mississippi Delta at 2 a.m. one morning in 1992.

“I just didn’t even believe it was happening,” said Williams, 35, who with his wife, Maggie, 31, now owns two popular Elkhart restaurants and is planning to open a third.

Leaving a nightclub with his brother, sister and sister’s boyfriend, Williams watched what seemed like a surreal slow-motion video as two vehicles full of masked gunmen drove by each side of their car with automatic rifles and handguns blazing. Then the attackers turned around and made another pass.

His sister was shot seven times and her boyfriend also was hit, wounds from which they recovered. Williams and his brother escaped unscathed from what was likely payback for an earlier fight.

As he lay on the floor of the bullet-riddled car, Williams felt, “It was almost like God wrapped his arms around me. I knew from then basically that I had a purpose.”

Williams’ journey is one that began, like many, with a dream. Stunted by poor choices, it was nourished anew with faith and love and now flowers with redemption. It is a story from which Elkhart and the nation might take a page as they struggle to make fresh starts in these troubled times.

The dream was simple. From childhood, “I knew I was going to be a chef and own a restaurant.” Growing up in Shelby, Miss., a town of about 3,000 where half the residents live in poverty, that seemed a tall order.

Click here to read more.

Here Is Jamie Hector’s Statement Regarding The Incident

“I first want to make it clear that the shooting incident yesterday did not take place at my home, nor did it involve me, my wife, nor any of the invited guests.  Although none of the guests were hurt physically, the trauma of this experience is unforgettable.   My condolences go out to the families of the victims.

I grew up in Brooklyn and this kind of violence is one of the reasons I founded Moving Mountains, Inc., a non-profit youth organization that redirects talented youth through the arts. I focus their energy on positive alternatives in an effort to deter them from this type of violence, which takes place on the streets everyday.  We work to provide them with the life skills that allow them to make good choices for themselves and prepare them to lead positive, violence free lives.”

Jamie also adds,  ”to be honest it was a disturbing feeling, but it also showed that we have a lot of work to do, we have to change how people think in order to change what they do”

From The New York Daily News

A made-for-tv gun battle erupted outside a Brooklyn baby shower for the wife of a star of the HBO crime series “The Wire” Sunday, killing one teen and wounding two men, cops said.

Gunmen unloaded nearly 50 bullets outside the party for the wife of actor Jamie Hector – who played violent druglord Marlo Stanfield on the hit series – then tried to finish off one of the wounded men outside a hospital.

“What a gun battle,” a police source told the Daily News. “They have been watching too much TV.”

Police and paramedics raced to E. 93rd St. in East Flatbush about 1:20 a.m.

Cops found evidence of a running gun battle with at least 46 shell casings dotting about half the block beginning at Avenue B.

Two guns were recovered, but no suspects were arrested after the violence that spilled out from the party.

Linton Williams, 17, of Brooklyn, died at the scene.

As the smoke cleared, someone helped 32-year-old Andrew Filson into a car and raced him to Downstate Medical Center.

When the shooting victim got out of the car at the hospital, another vehicle rolled up and someone inside started firing.

Police sources said Filson was hit at least once at the hospital.

Emergency workers put him into an ambulance and rushed him to Kings County Hospital, a trauma center where he was listed in critical condition yesterday.

Walter Parker, 22, was shot in the leg outside the party. He flagged down an ambulance and was taken to Brookdale University Hospital, where he was in stable condition.

Hector, a Brooklyn native who has also starred in TV shows “Heroes,” “Jericho” and “The Game,” was said to be at the baby shower for some time.

It was unclear whether the actor was still there when the bullets started flying – or why the gunmen targeted the three victims. Hector’s spokesman didn’t respond to calls for comment.

Read The Whole Story

A 16-year-old boy killed while running from a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was shot in the back without warning and never brandished a gun as authorities contend, an attorney for the teen’s father said Tuesday.

A friend who was with Avery Cody never saw him with a weapon and he posed no threat to the deputy who shot him as he ran away in Compton on Sunday, said John E. Sweeney, an attorney who has handled many police abuse cases.

The boy’s family wants to know why he was killed “by an agency that’s sworn to protect and serve,” Sweeney said.

Sheriff’s homicide detectives were still investigating the case Tuesday, but preliminary evidence indicated that Cody pulled a fully loaded, .38-caliber revolver that was found near his body, said Lt. Dave Dolson, who is in charge of the probe.

“We’re pretty sure how it went down,” he said.

The deputy fired two shots and one hit the teen in the left side of his upper torso, not his back, Dolson said. “There’s nothing that we’ve found thus far that is anything that would generate controversy,” he said.

Residents of Compton often have had an uneasy relationship with law enforcement, and many are suspicious of police. The mainly black and Hispanic suburb south of downtown Los Angeles has struggled for decades with poverty and crime, especially gang violence.

Cody’s father, Avery Sr., wants the deputy charged and “brought to justice,” Sweeney said.

The boy and three friends had eaten at a local McDonald’s and were crossing a street when an unmarked sheriff’s patrol car stopped them “for no reason,” Sweeney said, citing an account given by one of the youngsters. “They had not done anything. They were walking in a calm manner,” he said.

A deputy ordered the youths to place their hands on the car, and then to lift up their T-shirts, Sweeney said. At that point, Cody ran. He was shot about 25 feet from the car, Sweeney said. Cody’s friends did not see the boy with a gun, the attorney said.

“He did not pull it, he did not brandish it, no one else saw it,” Sweeney said.

Dolson said two members of an anti-gang patrol stopped the four, but then declined to discuss what led the deputies to stop them, saying the details were still being investigated. He said however that the four had “associated themselves with a local street gang.”

The deputy shot Cody during a chase after the boy pulled a gun and “displayed it in a manner that made the deputy fear for his life,” Dolson said. No shots were fired by Cody and the deputy was not injured.

The 33-year-old deputy, an eight-year veteran, was on his regular days off and would be assigned to non-patrol duty when he returns if the investigation has not been completed, Dolson said.

Sheriff’s homicide and internal affairs investigators are reviewing the shooting. Homicide investigators will turn over their results to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, which will determine whether criminal charges should be filed.

Cody attended Zinsmeyer Academy in Long Beach, Sweeney said. The school, operated by the nonprofit organization ChildNet Youth and Family Services, provides education and training in social skills to students of local districts who are at risk of failing, according to ChildNet’s Web site.

From the beginning of the year to June 28, deputies have shot and killed four people and wounded five others, Dolson said. No deputies have been wounded.

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A judge has issued a gag order in the capital murder case against the man accused of killing one soldier and wounding another at a military recruiting office in Arkansas.

Judge Alice Lightle issued the order Monday after prosecutors requested it to block court officials and police from discussing the case.

Jim Hensley, attorney for suspect Abdulhakim Muhammad, said last week his client was influenced by hardened terrorists with whom he was jailed in Yemen.

Muhammad allegedly wanted to kill as many soldiers as he could because of harm he believed the military has done to Muslims.

Killed at the west Little Rock office was Army Pvt. William Long of Conway, who had just completed basic training and never saw combat.

From NPR

Hensley says Muhammed told him he was working with children in Yemen and many of them were refugees from Afghanistan.

“Some of them are missing arms and some of them are terribly disfigured,” Hensley says.

Muhammed told his lawyer that he blamed the U.S. military for the children’s suffering. Muhammed also said he met Afghan women who claimed to have been raped by U.S. soldiers. This also clearly rankled him, Hensley says.

There is some debate over why, exactly, Muhammed ended up behind bars in Yemen. His parents say he told them that he was in for visa violations. Law enforcement officials said it was more than that, but declined to be specific. What is certain is that prison added to the disillusionment Muhammed was already feeling toward the U.S.

“For whatever reason, he winds up in a prison in Yemen around people who certainly don’t appreciate America,” Hensley says. “And they start telling him, ‘Look what you have seen; look what’s going on.’ And all this stuff weighs heavy on a young man, and he wants to do something.”

A judge ruled Thursday that a former transit police officer should stand trial on murder charges in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man on a train platform.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Don Clay said there was sufficient evidence for ex-Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer Johannes Mehserle to face murder charges in the slaying of Oscar Grant early New Year’s Day.

Mehserle has pleaded not guilty.

Mehserle’s defense has contended that Mehserle accidentally grabbed his pistol instead of his stun gun when he shot Grant, who was face down on the platform.

“There is no doubt in my mind Mr. Mehserle meant to shoot Oscar Grant with a gun, not a Taser,” the judge said, concluding a seven-day preliminary hearing in Oakland. “It’s a dangerous act, an intentional act, a deliberate act.”

Videos of the incident that spread across the Internet show Mehserle, 27, firing a shot into the 22-year-old’s back. Officers had detained Grant and four friends at Oakland’s Fruitvale station for allegedly fighting on a train. The video prompted sometimes violent protests in Oakland.

When the judge rendered his decision, Mehserle sat looking straight ahead. Grant’s mother, Wanda Johnson, burst into tears.

After the court session, Johnson said, “I’m hurt. I’m saddened. Even if Mehserle goes to jail, his family is going to be hurt just like my family. They will have a loss. But their loss they will be able to go see. My loss, I have to go to the gravesite and look at my son’s headstone.”

Mehserle, who is free on $3 million bail, is next scheduled to appear June 18.

Rapper C-Murder has pleaded no contest to attempted murder charges.

The rapper, whose real name is Corey Miller, plead out to two counts of attempted second-degree murder will be sentenced to 10 years in prison in a deal with the state at the recommendation of the prosecutor.

Miller will also receive credit for time served in jail since August 2001.

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A woman who videotaped a San Francisco Bay area transit officer killing an unarmed man has testified that the officer didn’t act overly aggressive before the shooting and appeared “dumbfounded” afterward.

Karina Vargas was one of several witnesses who recorded the New Year’s Day shooting.

She told the judge Monday at the preliminary hearing for Johannes Mehserle that she believed other officers were unnecessarily aggressive in detaining Oscar Grant, whom she said didn’t appear to be resisting arrest.

Videos show Mehserle firing a shot into Grant’s back as the man lay face down on a platform. He was being detained for allegedly fighting on a train.

Mehserle has pleaded not guilty to murder. His attorney has said the officer meant to reach for his stun gun.

BREAKING NEWS: Police Brutally Beat 14 Year Old in Toledo

From the LA Times

Inglewood police shot and killed a man who allegedly brandished a weapon early Sunday while officers were attempting to break up a birthday party, authorities said.

The shooting was the latest deadly incident involving Inglewood’s Police Department, which is under investigation by two outside agencies, including the U.S. Department of Justice, over its use of deadly force.

Police said officers responded to reports of a fight shortly after 12:45 a.m. in the 800 block of South Osage Avenue. Officers opened fire on Marcus Smith, 31, of Compton after he pointed a semiautomatic handgun at them, Lt. Mike McBride said.

“He had it in his hand. He drew it and pointed it in the direction of the officers,” McBride said. “So I would say that’s threatening the officers.”

One officer was shot in the right leg in the incident. He was taken to a hospital, treated and released, McBride said. Police suspect the officer was shot by Smith, but they need to conduct more tests on his gun to be sure, he said.

A woman who identified herself as Smith’s fiancee said she did not see him brandish a weapon. Kalonna LaCount said she and Smith were leaving the party together after police called on guests to disperse.

LaCount said she and Smith were walking down a stairway when Smith slipped. LaCount said she then saw Smith’s body jerk as police fired their weapons.

“He had his hands in the air,” she said. “The more he stumbled, the more they shot.”

LaCount said she was not certain whether Smith was armed or even owned a gun. LaCount, wearing a green dress stained with Smith’s blood, sat on the steps of the apartment building Sunday and wept as she recounted the moments before his death. LaCount said she and Smith had been together for 18 years and have three daughters, all under the age of 12.

Turning to her brother, Taqwa LaCount, she said: “He’s dead. Can you believe it? What am I going to do?”

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UPDATE: NY Shooting Victims From Haiti, Other Nations

The 13 people shot to death by a Vietnamese-born man in a U.S. immigration services center last week came from a host of nations including China, Haiti, the Philippines and Iraq, authorities said on Sunday.

The nationalities of the victims were released as police continued to investigate the mass murder Friday at the American Civic Association building in Binghamton, New York, which provided English classes and other services to newcomers.

Four of the dead were from China. Others came from the Philippines, Iraq, Brazil, Haiti, Vietnam, the United States and Pakistan. They ranged in age from 22 to 72, Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan’s office said.

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Man Takes Hostages, Kills 12 and Himself in Upstate N.Y., April 3, 2009

A gunman opened fire at an immigration services center in downtown Binghamton on Friday, killing as many as 13 people before authorities found him dead, officials said.

Gov. David Paterson said at a news conference that 12 or 13 people had been killed.

A law enforcement official said the body of the man believed to be the gunman was found in an office of the American Civic Association building. The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the details of an ongoing hostage situation and was talking on condition of anonymity.

The gunman barricaded the rear door of the building with his car before entering through the front door, firing his weapon, the official said.

It wasn’t clear whether the gunman was included in the number of dead provided by the governor.

The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin reported that citizenship classes had been scheduled Friday at the center.

The Binghamton SWAT team responded, and the FBI was sending hostage negotiators and an evidence response team to the scene. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives was also sending agents to Binghamton.

Indications were that the shooter was a young male, the law enforcement official said.

The American Civic Association is an organization that helps immigrants in the Binghamton area with naturalization applications, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

The association describes itself as helping immigrants and refugees with counseling, resettlement, citizenship, family reunification and translators.

The association’s president, Angela Leach, “is very upset right now,” said Mike Chanecka, a friend who answered a call at her home as Leach wept in the background.

“She doesn’t know anything; she’s as shocked as anyone,” Chanecka said. “For some reason, she had the day off today. And she’s very worried about her secretary.”

Five people with gunshot wounds were being treated at Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, according to hospital spokeswoman Christina Boyd.

The wounded ranged in age from 20 to their mid-50s, and their conditions ranged from stable to critical, she said.

Linda Miller, a spokeswoman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, said a student from Binghamton University was being treated there.

The shooting occurred in a mixed neighborhood of homes and small businesses in the center of Binghamton, a city of about 47,000 located 140 miles northwest of New York City.

College student Leslie Shrager told the AP that she and her five housemates were sleeping when police pounded on the front door of their house next door to the shooting scene.

Officers escorted the six Binghamton University students outside, she said, and that’s when they learned of the shooting.

“One of our housemates thought they heard banging of some kind. But when you’re living in downtown Binghamton, it’s always noisy,” said Shrager, of Slingerlands, an Albany suburb. “Literally two minutes later the cops came and got us out.”

At the junction of the Susquehanna and the Chenango rivers, the Binghamton area was the home to Endicott-Johnson shoe company and the birthplace of IBM, which between them employed tens of thousands of workers before the shoe company closed a decade ago and IBM downsized in recent years.

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Houston Rockets forward Carl Landry is expected to miss one to three weeks after he was shot in the left leg early Tuesday while driving near his home.

The injury was minor, and the team said Landry was treated at a hospital and released. Landry, who also dislocated a finger on his left hand, also was examined by team doctor Tom Clanton.

The shooting occurred about 2:30 a.m., a few hours after the Rockets returned from a game at New Orleans. Landry drove home after the team arrived about 12:30 a.m.

Houston police said Landry was driving his sport utility vehicle southbound on a city street, when a northbound car swerved into his path and collided with his vehicle. Landry and the driver of the other vehicle made U-turns and the vehicles collided again and Landry’s SUV hit a utility pole.

Police spokesman Kese Smith said Landry got out of his SUV to inspect the damage, and was shot by one of the two occupants of the car. The suspects then fled the scene, while Landry ran to get help, police said.

Smith originally said the incident occurred about 4 a.m., but said later that was the time authorities were notified. Smith did not know if Landry was the person who called police.

Landry had a female passenger in his SUV, and she was not injured, police said.

General manager Daryl Morey visited Landry at the hospital and said he sustained a surface wound that was no worse than a calf strain.

“We’re just happy Carl is okay,” Morey said. “By what we can understand, he was very lucky – obviously unlucky to have this situation happen to him, but very lucky that he came out without anything major.”

The 6-foot-9 Landry has become a valuable player off the bench for the Rockets, averaging 9.3 points and five rebounds in his second NBA season. He had 12 points and six rebounds in Monday’s 95-84 win that kept Houston in third place in the Western Conference standings.

Houston coach Rick Adelman said he had not talked to Landry since the shooting, but several players had checked in with their teammate.

“He just sounded happy, blessed,” said point guard Aaron Brooks. “It was a situation that pretty much anybody could’ve been in. He’s just blessed to be OK, blessed that he’s alive and that he’ll be back and be Carl again.”

Adelman said Landry’s injury could mean more playing time for Chuck Hayes and Dikembe Mutombo, who played 25 minutes on Monday’s victory.

“Obviously, it hurts us,” Adelman said of Landry’s absence. “But on the other hand, it’s going to give other guys the chance to step up and play. We’ve got to have that from everybody else. It’s going to hurt us, but he’ll be back and the rest of our group has to try to step up and win games.”

Landry was drafted by Seattle in the second round in 2007, then traded to Houston for a future second-round pick and cash. He averaged eight points and 4.9 rebounds in 2007-08.

In Game 3 of a first-round series against Utah, Landry blocked Deron Williams’ layup try with 3.4 seconds left to preserve Houston’s 94-92 victory. Landry also lost a tooth in that game after taking an elbow from Utah’s Carlos Boozer.

“Carl has been great for us,” Houston forward Shane Battier said. “His energy and punch off the bench has been outstanding. But it’s ironic that other guys will get a chance to step in, much like he got a chance to step in and give us a lift last year.

“We’re not worried about Carl from the basketball standpoint. That’s the least of our worries. We just want him to get healthy and deal with this episode.”

A gunman went on a shooting spree in two neighboring south Alabama towns Tuesday, killing nine people before he shot himself at a metals plant, authorities said. Police are investigating at least four separate shootings, all believed to be done by one gunman, whose name was not released, the Alabama Department of Safety said in a statement.

The shootings began late in the afternoon in Samson. The shooter killed five people in one home and one each in two other homes.

The gunman also shot at a state trooper’s car, striking the vehicle seven times and wounding the trooper with broken glass.

He then killed someone at a Samson supply store and another person at a service station, the safety department said.

Police pursued him to Reliable Metal Products just north of Geneva, about a dozen miles southeast of Samson, where he fired an estimated 30 rounds. One of the bullets hit Geneva Police Chief Frankie Lindsey, who was saved by his bullet proof vest, the safety department said.

The statement says the gunman then went in the plant and shot himself. His name was not released.

The gunman had worked at Reliable Metal, said state Rep. Warren Beck, a Republican whose district includes Geneva.

“My secretary heard gunfire everywhere,” he said. “This is one of the most tragic events ever in Geneva County.”

State Sen. Harri Anne Smith, R-Slocomb, said some of those killed in Samson were sitting outside.

“He was just driving down the street shooting at people sitting on their porches,” she said. “A family was just sitting on the porch and they were shot.”

Reliable Metal Products makes grills and vents for heating and AC systems, mainly for hotels. A call to a person who answered the phone at the plant said no one could talk about the shooting.

The towns of Geneva and Samson are roughly 30 miles south of Fort Rucker, near the Florida border in southeast Alabama. Geneva’s population is about 4,400 and Samson, 2,000.

Smith and Beck were at the Statehouse when state troopers came to get them and took them to Geneva County. Smith said the governor’s office is sending resources and state troopers are setting up a command post.

An internationally diverse student body is vital to Virginia Tech, the school’s president said Wednesday in response to e-mails and blogs disparaging Asians that surfaced after a Chinese student was accused of decapitating a classmate.

The killing last month was the first since Seung-Hui Cho, a Korean student, killed 32 people in a mass shooting in 2007 and revived memories of the tragedy.

Some of the comments from parents, alumni and members of the public questioned whether the university should allow international students to attend the school. Others supported the university’s international community.

President Charles Steger said in an open letter that the school was enriched by its diversity and that overall there were few reports of international students getting into trouble.

“Virginia Tech is an open and accepting community including many races, ethnicities, and cultures from around the world,” Steger wrote in the letter.

Steger said there was no evidence that the decapitation of Xin Yang, 22, in a campus coffee shop Jan. 21 had anything to do with her ethnicity, Steger said. Both Yang and suspect Haiyang Zhu, who is charged with first-degree murder, are from China.

The school has more than 2,100 students from 72 foreign countries among its full-time enrollment of 30,000.

University spokesman Larry Hincker said school officials have received several dozen letters as well as e-mails and calls attacking foreigners. Hincker called the comments “xenophobic barbs.”

The head of a support service for the school’s international community said the comments on blogs began the night of the recent slaying. They ranged from “being very supportive to being very irrational,” said Kim Beisecker, director of the Cranwell International Center on campus.

Beisecker said there hasn’t been any immediate reaction to Steger’s letter or the comments from the Chinese community.

One Chinese student, Yan Ni, said the campus atmosphere had not changed since the killing.

“I didn’t feel any difference,” the student said in an e-mail.

Steger said the school’s judicial system has had a low number of offenses by international students. He also said national statistics show Asians are 10 times less likely than whites to commit homicide in the United States.

Steger said the recent killing revived memories of the mass killing in April 2007 when Cho shot 32 people to death in a dormitory and classroom building before taking his own life.

“Many, we are sure, are wondering ‘Why us?’” Steger said.

The president noted that Virginia Tech’s campus had never been the scene of a student killing until those slayings.

“These events are troubling when seen against the backdrop of the normally serene college environment,” he said.

Zhu, 25, a doctoral student who came to Virginia Tech last August, is being held without bond pending a preliminary court hearing March 5. His lawyer, Stephanie Cox, has not returned telephone calls seeking comment and a spokeswoman at her office said Wednesday she was unavailable.

Yang was pursuing a master’s degree in accounting and had arrived on campus less than two weeks before she was slain. A university official said she and Zhu apparently had met only recently, and he had been helping her adjust to campus life.

Suing police officers is good business for civil rights lawyer John Burris.

Over the past 30 years, the former prosecutor has earned millions of dollars for handling hundreds of police brutality suits, other racially charged cases and high-profile lawsuits.

Burris, 63, helped win a $3.8 million jury verdict for Rodney King over a videotaped beating in 1991 at the hands of Los Angeles police. He defended basketball star Latrell Sprewell against reckless driving charges in 1998. And he obtained a $42,000 settlement for the late rapper Tupac Shakur in a 1991 brutality suit against the Oakland police.

So it came as little surprise in legal circles that Burris was hired by the family of Oscar Grant, the 22-year-old black man gunned down by a white transit police officer as he lay face down on a Bay Area Rapid Transit platform here on New Year’s Day.

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Prosecutors allege that Grant was restrained and about to be handcuffed when BART officer Johannes Mehserle shot him once in the back. Murder charges have been filed against Mehserle; Burris has filed a $25 million claim on behalf of Grant’s family.

Burris said Grant’s death is one of the two most unsettling cases he has handled since graduating from the University of California, Berkeley’s law school in 1976. The other is the lawsuit he filed for the family of Mack “Jody” Woodfox, who was fatally shot in the back while fleeing Oakland police after a traffic stop in July.

“It’s the shooting in the back that causes people to go nuts,” Burris said of the sometimes-violent demonstrations here over Grant’s death. “That’s as bad as it gets.”

Burris’ portfolio and his visibility as a television commentator have helped forge his reputation as an aggressive advocate for Northern California’s black community.

Burris figures he takes about 50 police brutality cases a year. Many are relatively small, such as ex-convicts getting teeth knocked out by police or black women accusing officers of conducting illegal strip searches.

But in 2006, he helped secure $1.3 million in settlements from the city of Oakland after Iraq war protesters accused police of using excessive force to break up a raucous demonstration.

In 2003, Burris won a $10.9 million settlement from Oakland to settle the notorious “Riders” case, in which police allegedly arrested and planted evidence on 119 innocent suspects. It remains the city’s largest settlement.

“Every case begets another case,” he said.

His biggest target, by far, is the Oakland Police Department.

Neither Oakland City Attorney John Russo, whose office routinely fights Burris’ lawsuits, nor Oakland Police Department union president Dom Arotzarena were willing to share their thoughts about Burris.

Burris has sometimes been in trouble with the law himself. In 2005, a federal judge sharply rebuked him for failing to properly investigate a claim before filing one lawsuit.

U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker fined Burris and another lawyer $10,800 for filing a lawsuit after only a single interview with the clients, who accused the police department of wrongly killing a mentally disturbed Oakland resident who stabbed an officer.

Burris defended himself before the judge by pointing to his long track record of filing successful lawsuits.

“Indeed, Burris’ years of experience and success serve to magnify the egregiousness of the conduct at issue in this case,” Walker said in ordering sanctions.

Burris’ clients fired him in 2007, and the judge filed a complaint to the State Bar last year. Burris said he hired a lawyer to write a letter to the state bar, and that officials there “closed the file” without taking any disciplinary action.

It wasn’t the first time Burris got into legal hot water. In 1996, the State Bar suspended him for 30 days for sending misleading solicitations to victims of mass disasters, which he blamed on overzealous underlings. He was also chided at the same time for improperly mixing clients’ money with his own, and the bar found that he “recklessly failed to perform legal services with competence,” according to bar records.

But it was that same year that Burris worked on what would be his proudest case.

Burris said he defended for free a six-year-old boy charged with assault for dumping an infant out of a bassinet and then beating him. Burris convinced a juvenile court referee to put the boy into foster care rather than the criminal system.

Burris said he has kept in contact with his client, who is soon to be released from state care as an 18-year-old.

“He made it,” Burris said.

Recently revealed cell phone camera footage has revealed that Oscar Grant was brutally punched for no reason before he was shot in the back.

Read and Watch a Video on the Oscar Grant Protests That Turned Violent

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Plaxico Burress told police that he had no knowledge of a 2005 shooting incident in the Bronx in which two people were seen firing rounds from a sport-utility truck the New York Giants star borrowed from a dealer.

The oft-troubled New York Giants receiver ended up in a lawsuit over the truck, as a Lebanon, Pa., dealer sued Burress for damaging the 2004 Chevrolet Avalanche and failing to return it.

A civil trial began Wednesday afternoon in Pennsylvania. Burress and the car dealer, Frederick Laurenzo, gave conflicting accounts during the first 90 minutes of testimony. Laurenzo said he spoke by telephone to Burress and the agent, Robert Bailey, and had a verbal agreement about the details of the deal, in which Burress was to make promotional appearances for the dealership and was not to let anybody else drive the car.

Burress said he simply asked his agent to get a car for him and that he never spoke to Laurenzo about any conditions.

There was no mention during the initial testimony about how the truck ended up in the midst of a shooting incident in New York City.

According to New York police, officers saw two men firing off rounds from inside the truck on a Bronx street early on Aug. 20, 2005. It did not, however, appear that they were targeting anyone, police said.

Officers recovered two 9-mm pistols at the scene and arrested two people, one of them a cousin of Burress, police said.

Investigators contacted Burress, who came in with a lawyer more than two weeks later for questioning. Burress signed a statement saying he had loaned the car to a cousin, but that he had no knowledge of the incident and was at practice at the time of the shooting.

Burress’ attorney Benjamin Brafman says he was told that at the time of the incident Burress was with the team at a New Jersey hotel because the Giants had a home preseason game later that day.

Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon declined to discuss Burress’ exact whereabouts at the time of the shooting.

Charges against Burress’ cousin were dropped. The other person in the car pleaded guilty in March 2006 to criminal possession of a weapon, police said.

Police said they released the car to the dealer in January 2007.

Laurenzo said the vehicle was worth more than $36,000, but he loaned it to Burress because the NFL star agreed to sign autographs at promotional events.

Laurenzo filed a civil complaint in September 2006 seeking restitution and accusing Burress of breach of contract because he never showed up to sign autographs and let someone else drive the vehicle. Laurenzo also said Burress made no effort to help him get the damaged vehicle back.

After Laurenzo put a lien against Burress’ house in Virginia, the sides agreed to an arbitration. A three-lawyer panel awarded more than $22,000 to Laurenzo last year, but Burress appealed.

Burress’ lawyer in the vehicle dispute, Matthew T. Croslis, acknowledged Tuesday that Burress is responsible for some damages. The jury will have to decide how much, Croslis said.

The star receiver who caught the game-winning pass in last year’s Super Bowl has been embroiled in controversy for months. Burress, 31, was charged with two counts of illegal weapons possession after he accidentally shot himself in the right thigh at a Manhattan nightclub on Nov. 29.

Burress, who received a five-year, $35 million contract extension from the Giants in September, turned himself in on the weapons charges and was released on $100,000 bail. He is due in court March 31.

After the self-inflicted shooting, the Giants suspended Burress for the remainder of the season.

In December, Burress was sued in Broward County, Fla., for an accident last May in which he allegedly drove his $140,000 Mercedes-Benz into the back of a woman’s vehicle. The woman’s attorney later said that Burress had failed to pay the premium on his car insurance, which had lapsed three days before the wreck.

A jail official says a former transit police officer who allegedly shot dead an unarmed man on an Oakland train platform on New Year’s Day has been arrested in Nevada.

A Douglas County jail official confirmed that 27-year-old Johannes Mehserle was in custody Tuesday night under a fugitive warrant issued in California. The official would not give their name because the arrest had not been announced.

Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff is expected to announce details of the arrest Wednesday. There was no immediate word on what the charges of Mehserle faces.

Witnesses say Mehserle shot 22-year-old Oscar Grant in the back while he was lying facedown. The shooting was captured on video and has led to numerous protests.

Mehserle resigned his position last week from the Bay Area Rapid Transit.

SummahRain posts the BP news article “What happens when a White Man Opens Fire On Police? in stark contrast to the other police shootings this year. Weigh in with your opinion here.

BP members discuss the circumstances surrounding the New Year’s shooting of 22-year-old Adolph Grimes III in the shared news article “New Orleans Cops Shoot 22 y.o. Black Man 12 TIMES in his BACK!!!”.  Be sure to check out the news link in the article. Join the debate here.

In the shared article “Police Officer Shoots 23-Year-Old Bellaire, TX Black Man by Mistake!!! OOPS” Yet another young black man is shot in a seemingly needless confrontation with police. Join the conversation about this important topic here.

Five people were shot as spectators left a crowded high school basketball game Friday in what police called a possibly gang-related drive-by attack that sent panicked students running into a snowy street on the city’s South Side.

Five males – three in serious condition and two in critical – were taken from Paul Laurence Dunbar Vocational Career Academy around 8 p.m., said Chicago Fire Department spokeswoman Eve Rodriguez. Hospital spokespeople said later that at least three were expected to be treated and released.

“It was crazy. It was like killers on the loose,” said Joshua Glaze, 15, a freshman at the school.

The game was in overtime and some students began to leave the building, Glaze said.

A vehicle then drove up and a person or people inside started shooting into the crowd, said Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis.

No suspect has been identified or arrested, but the shooting was “isolated” and possibly gang-related, Weis said. Two hundred officers were in the area looking for suspects, he said.

Dunbar freshman Shaneisha Turman, 15, said she saw a silver truck pull up to a bus stop outside the school. People inside the truck pretended to fire a gun and then “they really started shooting,” she told the Chicago Tribune.

People were shouting, “‘They’re shooting!’” Turman said. “It was a lot of people shouting and running.”

Police blocked access to streets at least two blocks from the high school to make way for ambulances and police cars.

Andres Durbak, director of the city schools’ Office of Safety and Security, said video taken in and around the school has been handed over to police.

“This is a tragedy,” Durbak said.

Police spokeswoman Monique Bond declined to characterize the victims beyond gender and would not say whether they had attended the basketball game. She added that they were “not necessarily students.”

The high school has about 1,600 students and is the alma mater of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson.

The son of a retired major league baseball player was shot outside his Bellaire home New Year’s Eve by a police officer who thought the man was in a stolen SUV.

Bellaire Assistant Police Chief Byron Holloway says that the vehicle turned out not to be stolen.

The car belonged to the wounded man, 23-year-old Robert Tolan, son former big leaguer Bobby Tolan.

Police and the Harris County district attorney’s office were investigating. Tolan’s relatives accused police of singling him out because he is black.

Holloway says “As far any allegations of racial profiling, I’d probably say that’s not going to float.”

Robert Tolan was returning home with his 20-year-old cousin from a fast food restaurant about 2 a.m. when police pulled up as the pair got out of the SUV and walked toward Tolan’s parents’ house in the Houston enclave.

Officers ordered Tolan and his cousin to kneel to the ground, then to lay on the ground. Tolan’s parents heard the commotion and came outside. Relatives said when 1 of the officers pushed Tolan’s mother up against a wall of the house, Tolan leaned up to complain and was shot.

Holloway described it as an altercation as officers attempted to detain and question the pair.

Holloway identified the officer involved in the shooting as Sgt. Jeff Cotton. He has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of an investigation.

Tolan, who was shot in the abdomen, was being treated at a Houston hospital. His injury is described as not life-threatening.

His father, Bobby Tolan, played for five teams during a 13-year major league career that ended in 1979. His best years were with the Cincinnati Reds in the early 1970s.

An attorney hired by the family of a man slain by a transit agency police officer early New Year’s Day says the victim was shot in the back while lying on his stomach waiting to be handcuffed. Attorney John Burris says 22-year-old Oscar Grant posed no threat to Bay Area Rapid Transit officers when Grant was fatally shot at around 2:15 a.m.

Agency spokesman Jim Allison says the officer’s gun went off while police were trying to restrain Grant at BART’s Fruitvale station, and that he was not cuffed. Allison says it is unclear if the shooting was an accident or deliberate, and that the agency is investigating.

Burris was hired by the mother of Grant’s 4-year-old daughter to investigate the incident. He says the Alameda County district attorney should investigate, noting that the officer had a stun gun as well as a firearm.

The unidentified officer is on administrative leave during the investigation.

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The recent incident with Michael Mineo claiming he was sodomized with a baton by police officers in Brooklyn has shown that police brutality is still a major problem in New York. This is not the first time a minority male has been sodomized by an NYPD officer.

Its seem as if most incidents of brutality in New York involve either sodomy or the shooting of unarmed and innocent civilians. As disturbing as the events actually are, even more disturbing is the amount of times that officers are acquitted for their actions. Here are some of the most disturbing occurrences of police brutality in New York in recent memory.

1. Abner Louima.

What happened to Abner Louima would’ve been disturbing if it happened in the Abu Graib prisons. Abner Louima was at a club in Brooklyn when a fight broke out. Policeman, Justin Volpe, mistakenly took Louima for a man who sucker punched him and began beating him up on the street.

Justin Volpe

Officers took Louima back to the precinct where Volpe continued to beat him. Volpe Kicked him in the testicles and sodomized him with a broomstick, causing critical internal damage. After he was done, Volpe, proudly displayed the excrement and blood stained broomstick to his co-workers and boasted that he had broken a man. Volpe then threatened to kill Louima and his family if he told anyone.

Volpe admitted in court to sodomizing Louima and was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Only one other cop involved in the incident, Chris Schwartz, served any time. Louima sued the city successfully for $5.8 million.

2. Sean Bell

Sean Bell was killed on the morning of his wedding day at a strip club in queens. After leaving the nightclub, Bell and his friends were confronted by a plainclothes undercover officer who did not identify himself. When Bell sped off the officer along with his back up, let off 50 rounds into Bell’s vehicle, killing him and severely injuring his friends.

Although nobody in the car was found with a gun, police continued to smear Bell’s character after the incident as if Bell and his friends were under investigation and not the police officers. The officers were charged with manslaughter, reckless endangerment and assault but we’re all acquitted. Protests erupted all over New York and Al Sharpton was arrested.

Watch a Short Movie on Sean Bell

3. Amadou Diallo

Diallo was an immigrant from the republic of Guinea who despite his education worked selling DVD’s and socks on 14th St while studying at night. While returning to to his home after a meal, Diallo caught the eye of 5 NYPD officers who believed he fit the description of a serial rapist. The officers followed him to his apartment door. When Diallo reached into his jacket, a police officer yelled gun and the other officers let off 41 shots, 19 hitting Diallo. No gun was found on Diallo, only a wallet he pulled out to identify himself.

The officers were charged with second-degree murder and reckless endangerment but were acquitted after the trial was moved from the Bronx to more cop-friendly Albany, New York. Diallo’s mother sued the city for $61 million (20 million plus a million for each shot fired) and wound up being awarded $3 million.

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4. Randolph Evans

15 year old Randolph Evans was shot and killed on Thanksgiving Night in 1976. Officer, Robert Torsney, was called to a housing project in Brooklyn to investigate a man with a gun. He met with group of young black men and proceeded to shoot the unarmed Evans for no given reason.  Although he never was treated for epilepsy, Torsney’s defense maintained that he killed Evans because of a rare case of epilepsy and he was acquitted on the grounds of mental insanity.

5. Alberta Spruil.

Albert Spruil was a 57 year old church-going city worker. Her only crime was living in the wrong neighborhood. Cops believed that there was a large amount of guns, drugs and vicious dogs in her Harlem apartment. Without knocking they battered her door in and threw a flash grenade into her apartment. Although they found now weapons or drugs in her apartment, they put her in handcuffs. Despite the fact that she told them she had a heart problem, it took an hour and half to get her to the hospital where she was pronounced dead. The no knock raids have also killed a 92 year old black woman in Atlanta. Although no officers were charged in the incident, Spruil’s family collected $1.6 million for the incident.

Pierce has refused to discuss his actions, but he said Wednesday he would talk to the media after practice Thursday. It’s unclear whether he will chat about anything other than Sunday’s game against Philadelphia as his attorney Michael Bachner is working out details of when the middle linebacker will talk to police.

Authorities are trying to determine whether Pierce tried to cover up the shooting early Saturday morning in a Manhattan nightclub. Police said Pierce drove Burress to the hospital and returned to New Jersey with Burress’ gun in the glove compartment of his black Cadillac Escalade. Investigators have impounded the SUV to search it for any blood or gun residue.

A day after suspending Burress for conduct detrimental to the team, the Super Bowl champion Giants disclosed key details about how Burress ended up at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center in an effort to clarify the team’s involvement in the treatment.

The team said Pierce called team trainer Ronnie Barnes after the shooting at the Latin Quarter nightclub, and Barnes advised him to take Burress to New York Presbyterian. Police plan to subpoena cell phone records from Burress and Pierce, the New York Daily News reported in Thursday’s edition.

Giants spokesman Pat Hanlon said Barnes wanted Burress near the Hospital for Special Surgery, which is located next door, in case the injury required any orthopedic work by team physicians.

The team said Mark Drakos, a doctor from the Hospital for Special Surgery who has treated Giants players in the past, examined Burress after he was paged by New York Presbyterian. The team said it was a coincidence that Drakos was on call.

When Barnes arrived at the hospital, he asked to see Burress, by name, and was taken to the room where he was being treated. Barnes later learned Burress had been issued a hospital ID bracelet with an alias, and Hanlon said neither Barnes nor the Giants had any involvement with Burress being admitted under a false name.

While Barnes waited outside the room, an attending physician approached Barnes and said Burress had suffered no vascular injuries. She then returned to the treatment room. The team said Barnes did not know the doctor and was not in the room while she was treating Burress.

Dr. Josyann Abisaab has been suspended for not reporting Burress’ gunshot injury, as required by law. Abisaab, who’s affiliated with the hospital and specializes in internal and emergency medicine, could not be reached for comment.

Police still want to interview the people at the hospital who treated Burress and did not report the shooting.

They also want to talk to Pierce. Unlike Burress, who’s charged with illegal weapons possession, Pierce has yet to be charged.

Earlier Wednesday, Giants coach Tom Coughlin said there’s no need to consider potential punishment of Pierce right now.

“There is no doubt we’ll do the right thing,” Coughlin added, “and that’s no threat to the players, they know that.”

With the Giants (11-1) on the verge of clinching the NFC East and gaining a first-round playoff bye, teammates rallied behind Pierce.

“I don’t really think he did anything wrong,” veteran halfback Reuben Droughns said. “I wasn’t there, but I don’t think he was trying to hide anything. I think for the most part he was just being a teammate; he was more concerned about what was going on with a teammate than anything else.”

Even if the team makes the playoffs, Burress won’t be a part of it.

The team fined and suspended Burress for four games, the rest of the regular season, Tuesday. The Giants also placed him on the reserve non-football injury list, which means he won’t be back for the playoffs.

The NFL Players Association, however, said in a statement that it was reviewing the Giants’ actions and planned to file a grievance, saying Burress’ collective bargaining rights were violated.

“I had a conversation with Plaxico. He was very humble. He was remorseful,” Coughlin said. “Obviously that doesn’t change anything. But you have to understand that he is part of our team and our concern is with he and his family’s well being, and the ability of him to get through this circumstance and be healthy again.”

The violence erupted on Black Friday, the traditional post-Thanksgiving start of the holiday shopping surge, but authorities indicated it was not prompted by a shopping frenzy.

The Palm Desert Police Department received calls of shots fired just after 11:30 a.m. and found the two men dead.

Riverside County sheriff’s Sgt. Dennis Gutierrez confirmed there was a fight but said it was not over a toy.

He released little information at a news conference five hours after the shooting but emphasized there were no outstanding suspects and that no one was arrested. Detectives were reviewing security video and interviewing witnesses, he said.

The incident occurred near the front of the store in the check-out area. Gutierrez said

Palm Desert Councilman Jim Ferguson said police told him two men with handguns shot and killed each other. Ferguson said he asked police whether the incident was a dispute over a toy or whether it was gang-related. He said police told him they were not going to release further details until the victims’ relatives were notified.

“I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys “R” Us?” he said. “I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper.”

Gutierrez would not respond when asked if the violence was gang-related.

City spokeswoman Sheila Gilligan said police told her the shooting broke out between “two groups of individuals that have a dispute with each other.”

Ray Turner, 20, said he was two aisles away when two women began shouting and screaming at each other and he had a clear view of the fight until a crowd clustered around them. Both women had children, he said.

“We thought it was just a fight and then someone yelled, ‘He’s got a gun. He’s got a gun.’ You really couldn’t see nothing because there was a crowd,” said Turner.

Rafael Gomez, 11, said he and his father had been in the store about 20 minutes before the shooting but were in a nearby Pizza Hut when they saw people pouring out of the store screaming.

“We just saw them running and crying. I was kind of scared,” Gomez said. “We got lucky.”

Toys “R” Us issued a statement expressing outrage over the violence.

“We are working closely with local law enforcement officials to determine the specific details of what occurred,” the statement said. “Our understanding is that this act seems to have been the result of a personal dispute between the individuals involved. Therefore, it would be inaccurate to associate the events of today with Black Friday.”

Sarah Pacia of Cathedral City told The Desert Sun newspaper she was in the store with her two boys, ages 4 and 6, looking at coloring books when she heard a commotion in the next aisle. She thought it was people rushing to get a sale item. Then she heard three or four shots.

She said she froze, and store employees calmly escorted her out of the store.

“This is Toys “R” Us. There are kids shopping in there,” Pacia said. Her son Jayden, 4, was clinging to her leg. He told her he didn’t want to die, she said.

Palm Desert is a resort town about 120 miles east of Los Angeles.

Savannah State University is on lockdown after a student was wounded in a shooting at University Commons, an on-campus residence hall.

On a tip from Morgan Denise, word breaks that two people were taken to a local hospital after shots were fired between 11 a.m. and noon Friday, according to university spokeswoman Loretta Heyward.

Heyward said SWAT was called because officials believe the shooter was still in an apartment in the residence hall.

There were unconfirmed reports that the injured student was shot outside a classroom, according to MyFOXAtlanta.

The campus was locked down immediately following the shooting. Cars were allowed to leave the school around 2 p.m. but weren’t allowed to travel back onto the campus.

“We have locked our doors and are keeping our students inside,” said Tara Cox, a marine biologist at the Georgia school.

Campus and local police, including a S.W.A.T team, are at the university, along with investigators from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Savannah State University, a historically black college, was founded in 1890 and has a student population of about 3,200.